Manufacture of insulators for high-potential electric conductors.



rINrrE sTA. ES P FRED M. LOCKE, OF VICTOR,'I\TEW YORK.

i on Io.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 12, 1915.

No Drawing. Original application filed March 9, 1909, Serial No.482,382; Divided and this application I I filed January 19, 1915. SerialNo. 3,075.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FRED M. LOCKE, a citizenof the United States, and resident of Victor, in the county of Ontario,in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements inthe Manufacture of Insulators for High-Potential Electric Conductors, ofwhich the following is a full, clear,

and exact description.

This invention'relates to certain improvements in the manufacture ofinsulators for high potentialelectric conductors, and is a divisionof myco-pending application Serial No. 482,382, filed March 9, 1909, whichhas matured into Pat. No. 1127 0 12, Feb. 2, 1915, and refers moreparticularly to a composition electrical insulation as a new article ofmanufacture, the essential ingredients of which are boron or boroncompound and porcelain or glass thoroughly mixed by trituration orlevigation and then molded and fired in the usual manner for glassinsulators.

The use of glass as an insulator for high potential electric conductorsis recognized by manufacturers'and users as being impracticable owing toits brittleness and suceptibility to. breakage by varying temperaturesor climatic conditions, and also from the dielectric stresses andresultant heat to which it is subjected. For this reason porcelain,

which appears to have a greater dielectric strength and is lesssusceptible to breakage by variations in temperature orclimaticconditions, is generally employed. The primary object of my presentinvention is to increase the inductive capacity, dielectric strength andheat-resisting properties of this class of insulators to moreeffectively resist puncture or disintegration by an electric current orstatic charges therefrom, or from temperature of climatic changes. l

I have discovered'that by incorporating a suitable quantity of boron orboron compound, such as boracic acid, with the body of porcelain orglass usually employed for insulators, the inductive capacity,dielectric strength and resistance to puncture or disintegration by theelectric current and sudden temperature or climatic changes, are

increased approximately 20% over the same size and form of the base ofporcelain insulators. For example, in the experiments porcelain or highporcelain or glass insulators.

which I have made to determine the relative specific inductive capacityof air, glass, porcelain and my improved insulator composition, I findthat the specific inductive -ca-' my improved composition and of thesame size and form as the porcelain or glass insulator, withstood100,000 volts, or 20,000 volts more than the porcelain or glassinsulator, which was due solely to the increased specific inductivecapacity and dielectric strength produced by the boron or boron in someof its compound forms.

inductive capacity and. dielectric strength which gives great toughnessto the insulator, is probably due to the fact that boron and hydrogenform no compound or I This compounds under fusion and except in one ortwo special instances and under special circumstances, boron forms nocompound whatsoever with hydrogen, thereby more effectively excludingmoisture from the composition, which is believed to account for the Yhigh inductive capacity, dielectric strength, as well asnon-puncturability and resistance to heat. I

The manufacture of high potential porce lain and glass insulators iswell understood,

and in the formation of my improved composition the boron or boroncompound, such as boracic acid, and porcelain or glass 1ngredients, arethoroughly mixed in suitable proportions. The composition is then moldedwhile in a plastic condition into the desired form 1: insulator andfinished in the usual manii The invention herein relates to a structureadapted to serve as an insulator in the technical meaning of the term asapplled to an anrticle of manufacture, and the terms 1nsulating supportfor line conductors and insulator for high potential electric coner formaking high potential ductors are used in the claims herein to clearlydefine such structure as an article of manufacture to serve as aninsulatorin the technical meaning of the term and the claims herein aredrawn to the process of producing the insulator described herein, andthe term boron material as used in the claims hereof is deemed toinclude boron in elemental form as Well as boron compounds andderivatives.

What I claim is: o

1. An insulator for line conductors formed by fusing a vitrifiable baseand boron material into a homogeneous body.

2. An insulator for line conductors formed by fusing a glass base andboron material into a homogeneous body.

3. An insulator for high voltage current 15 formed by fusing aVitrifiable base and boron material into a homogeneous body, and shapingthe fused mass to desired form;

In Witness whereof l'have hereunto set my hand this 12th day of January,1915.

FRED M. LQCKE.

"Witnesses: i

L. F. LooMIs, C. A. MOORE.

